1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for determining the color type of a test subject by making a selection on the basis of a mixed color by way of the amount of primary color portions contained therein and determining the color type of the test subject as well as an arrangement for determining the color type of a test subject for carrying out such a method.
2. Prior Art
It has been generally known for quite some time that there is a connection between the natural skin coloration of a person and the colors that are appealing to the person concerned, inducing an accordingly pleasant feeling in that person. Since the natural color sensation is, however, differently strongly pronounced in men, which may be due, for instance, to a number of environmental influences, it does happen more and more frequently that such an inherently natural color sensation is not sufficiently emphasized, thus choosing colors, for instance, for hair, accessories or clothing, that are generally regarded as disadvantageous or unfavorable to the look of the person concerned, in particular, with respect to his/her skin color or tone. The responsibility of the different look of a person's skin rests with what is called successive contrast, such a sensation of contrasts of the eye usually causing the counter color of, for instance, the hair or clothing, i.e., in general, the color surrounding the skin to be seen more intensively on the skin. It is, furthermore, generally known that the different types of skin substantially are brought about by the portion of hemoglobin or carotene, which results in accordingly different skin types referred to, for instance, as warm types or cold types depending on whether the portion of carotene or yellow portion or whether the portion of hemoglobin or blue portion is predominant in the respective case.
In connection with the assessment of skin types various methods and techniques have already been known, which are used to a considerable extent, for instance, in the body, face or even hair cosmetics industries. A known method tries to find out the respective pigment or color portions of the skin by using, for instance, gold and silver colors or shadings in order to give recommendations on that base, for instance, with a view to makeups or hair colors to be used. Further known methods are based on the use of so-called color palettes, employing different tones or depths of colors each of a plurality of colors and asking the person concerned or test subject to determine the respective color tones from a plurality of different colors. However, on account of personal preferences, it frequently happens in such color selection processes that contrary color tones, i.e., color tones corresponding to different color types are each selected for different colors, thus making such a process not only time-consuming but often also to be completed without definite results. Other known methods for determining the skin or color type based, for instance, on the distribution or application of different colors on skin parts as well as the reaction of the skin likewise involve considerable time and other expenditures.
Methods of this kind, for determining a test subject's color type are known, for instance, from FR-A 1 347 400, U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,632 or EP-A 0 682 236, those known methods using, however, a plurality of different colors, as indicated above, thus rendering the selection considerably more difficult.
Moreover, it is disadvantageous with all of the known methods of this kind that the judgment of a suitable or appropriate color is effected by a third person independent of the person concerned or test subject, wherein the subjective color sensation of that third person, which naturally may decisively deviate from the color sensation of the person concerned, constitutes a substantial evaluation input and hence a large error source.